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Fresh

The Tomatometer is 60% or higher.

Rotten

The Tomatometer is 59% or lower.

Certified Fresh

Movies and TV shows are Certified Fresh with a steady Tomatometer of 75% or higher after a set amount of reviews (80 for wide-release movies, 40 for limited-release movies, 20 for TV shows), including 5 reviews from Top Critics.

Lay The Favorite was just an OK movie for me. I really love Bruce, Vince, and Josh. That is the only real reason I wanted to watch it. I usually let the actors I love lead me to the movies I watch. Unfortunately I wish it would have been in a film with a better script and directing. Plus the leading actress, Rebecca Hall, annoyed me to fullest. I am pretty sure it was her voice and her acting and her facial expressions. She just annoyed me all the way pretty much. She made it hard to pay attention to what was going on. All her quirks were just too much for me to look past. Bruce, Josh, and Vince are better than what this film offered. I don't see myself ever watching this again.

"Lay the Favourite" is one of those fluff movies that in 5 years, you'll watch pieces of on USA network. It's mildly entertaining, has good stars, but overall just isn't very good. About a girl who comes to vegas to be a cocktail waitress and she gets involved with a bookie, Dink(Bruce Willis). They work together, and she eventually wants more, but he is married to Tulip(Cathrine Zeta Jones), and then from there the movie goes to into like 3 different directions. Starts out decent, but then just spirals downward. The performances aren't very good as Willis and Jones either overact or look like they don't care. Vince Vaughn has a small role, and really I think he should have been in it a lot more and the movie could have been better. OK for a one time watch if nothing else is on and you don't care if the movie is good or not.

Good movie! If I hadn't seen Rebecca Hall in any other movie I guess I wouldn't have been amazed by the transformation or her performance in general in this movie. You really buy her ... let's call it naive nature, she puts on display here. Bruce Willis is pretty passive, which works in a way, but not throughout. Joshua and Catherine are not used in the best way possible, but the main focus is on Rebecca so that can be forgiven. Story-wise, there is not that much exciting or new happening, the jokes are not always working, but the movie has a low budget charm to it It's a nice little movie, that has more potential than it shows on screen.

Beth, a Las Vegas cocktail waitress, falls in with Dink, a sports gambler who swoons for her as she proves to be something of a gambling prodigy, earning the initial ire of Dink's wife, Tulip.

In "Lay the Favorite," Beth(Rebecca Hall) figures it is time to get out of the private dancing business when the customers start to get creepy. So, seeking a change of scenery, she moves to Las Vegas to become a cocktail waitress. Except it is not that easy. But through Holly(Laura Prepon), she learns that Dink(Bruce Willis) is hiring for his gambling business. Not only does he hire Beth but Dink takes a real liking to her which sort of does not sit well with his wife Tulip(Catherine Zeta-Jones).

"Lay the Favorite" proves the old adage that any movie that has more of Vince Vaughn than Wendell Pierce is in serious trouble. That's actually the least of this lackuster movie's problems because maybe there could have been a decent movie made about these real life gamblers but this is not it. As much a rut as director Stephen Frears has been in lately("Philomena" succeeded mostly due to the quality of its performances), his work could never be described as slap dash until now, as this movie definitely feels rushed with a definite lack of singular direction. At least, Rebecca Hall is a joy being cast supremely against type while also sharing rapport with Catherine Zeta-Jones in their scenes together.

The movie opens with a title card which reads: "As luck would have it, this is based on a true story". It's hard to see where luck comes into play as there's nothing about this bland story which makes it stand out. It seems contradictory that in America, the home of capitalism, bookmaking is illegal. I live in a country where the practice is not only legal but is a major contributor to the economy. The top bookmaker, Paddy Power, ranks alongside Guinness as one of the great Irish success stories and they have branches on practically every main street. For this reason I found it hard to see it as something dangerous and thrilling like it's portrayed here. Everything seems to happen too easily for Hall's character, creating little in the way of dramatic conflict. The movie's final third is meant to evoke the sort of paranoia of the finale of "Goodfellas" but we never get any genuine sense of threat. It's all as middle of the road as it gets, the film isn't humorous enough to be a comedy or serious enough for a drama. Most of the cast phone in their performances and you can't really blame them as the script is so dull. Hall however is compelling to watch. Her Daisy Dukes clad good-time girl is light years away from the sort of uptight waif roles she's been typecast in. There's also plenty of her on display which I certainly won't complain about. There have been many great films about gambling, and movies like "The Gambler" and "California Split" have used the subject for existential explorations. Frears wastes the concept with this flimsy tale that's simply not worth taking a punt on.

How can you have Bruce Willis and Catherine Zeta-Jones in a movie, and not a bad director like Stephen Frears, and still make something which simply SUCKS! Based on Beth Raymer's memoir of the same title, the film follows a young, free-spirited woman as she journeys through the legal and illegal world of sports gambling.

Beth Raymer (Hall) decides to leave behind her life as a stripper in Florida and moves to Las Vegas to become a cocktail waitress in a glitzy casino - her dream job. But, it is easier said than done and she starts working instead for Dink (Willis), a kind and idiosyncratic sports gambler. Dink starts admiring her when she shows him how good she is with numbers, but that is a cause for the ire of Dink's wife, Tulip (Zeta-Jones).

It is a movie, based on a true story, and is supposed to be a heartfelt comedy of finding friendship in the least likely places... after watching it I will tell you that is just a boring movie using a book which was boring itself! Don't waste time on this one.

Don't know much about gambling - and after watching this I still don't. The machinations of making a "line move" don't make sense to me. However, despite the topic, Rebecca Hall has an infectious innocence and charm and bowls you over as Beth. Bruce Willis is good in everything - one of my favs - and Laura Prepon gets nekkid. Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

I thought the cast was solid going in but the Lay the Favorite failed miserably largely because the protagonist, Rebecca Hall, cannot even remotely act. I don't know how she gets any roles. Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Joshua Jackson, Vince Vaughn, etc. all provide solid support but Hall was just ridiculous. The plot also got boring and fast. It didn't have a good flow and seemed to have no real direction for much of the film. Overall there really isn't much point in watching beyond a slightly humorous scene here and there.

I watched Lay the Favorite a couple of weeks ago and was completely unphased and unmoved by it. As it was the latest film from highly-respected director, Stephen Frears -- whose work I have admired in the past (The Queen, Dangerous Liaisons, High Fidelity, Dirty Pretty Things) -- I was determined to allow the film to remain in my mind/head while I mulled parts of it over. But ... I have since forgotten nearly everything in/about it! It meant nothing to me as I watched it ... and it means even less to me two weeks later which is unheard of for me. Not a single element of this film has stuck with me ... nothing ... although that might be perhaps because there is nothing here to start with. Perhaps it isn't me. In spite of a cast including Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Vince Vaughn, Joshua Jackson, Rebecca Hall, Corbin Bernsen and Laura Prepon (whom I don't even remember half of being in the movie) there is nothing here to take note of or remember. I don't even remember what movie I'm reviewing at the moment.

(11%)A limp waste of both man's and the world's resources who's cinematic release came and quickly vanished away before the glue that stuck the lame and cheap looking advertising posters had even properly dried. This is one of those films that starts OK with hope of things yet to come, but any hope here is badly misplaced. Rebecca Hall plays a ditzy, quite annoying stripper who becomes a Las Vegas high rolling pro gambler within the blink of an eye utilising her Rain man style abilities that are mentioned once and never spoken of ever again. It really is amazing how easy it is to get a well paying job in this movie, so much so that in this universe there's no such thing as poverty and everyone retires at 22. Bruce Willis plays the boss of a group of gambling speculators, and even he managers to annoy with his character who doesn't seem to accept that betting on anything is massively risky and requires nothing more than blind luck to succeed. While Catherine Zeta-Jones and Joshua Jackson are hardly featured and play mostly pointless roles anyway. Overall this managers to be both mundane, dry, and strait-laced, yet still a bit of a mess.

In "Lay the Favorite," Beth(Rebecca Hall) figures it is time to get out of the private dancing business when the customers start to get creepy. So, seeking a change of scenery, she moves to Las Vegas to become a cocktail waitress. Except it is not that easy. But through Holly(Laura Prepon), she learns that Dink(Bruce Willis) is hiring for his gambling business. Not only does he hire Beth but Dink takes a real liking to her which sort of does not sit well with his wife Tulip(Catherine Zeta-Jones).

"Lay the Favorite" proves the old adage that any movie that has more of Vince Vaughn than Wendell Pierce is in serious trouble. That's actually the least of this lackuster movie's problems because maybe there could have been a decent movie made about these real life gamblers but this is not it. As much a rut as director Stephen Frears has been in lately("Philomena" succeeded mostly due to the quality of its performances), his work could never be described as slap dash until now, as this movie definitely feels rushed with a definite lack of singular direction. At least, Rebecca Hall is a joy being cast supremely against type while also sharing rapport with Catherine Zeta-Jones in their scenes together.